


Summer Love

by Jenanigans1207



Series: Four Seasons of Klance Zine [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Four Seasons of Klance Zine, Lifeguard Lance, Love Confessions, M/M, Summer, Zine piece, like a slice of life movie but klance, picnic date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:53:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27718462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenanigans1207/pseuds/Jenanigans1207
Summary: “Yes.” Keith murmurs, his voice quiet now that Lance is so close to him. The moment feels so intimate. “I’ll go on a picnic with you tomorrow.”For a long moment, all Lance can hear is the thumping of his heart and the soft whoosh of the waves as they lap at their legs as he stands there, almost paralyzed, staring at Keith and his pretty moonlit eyes.“Great.” he finally manages to breathe. “Let’s meet here at around noon tomorrow? I’ll bring the picnic.”
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Four Seasons of Klance Zine [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2027401
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60





	Summer Love

**Author's Note:**

> I had the great joy of participating in the "Four Seasons of Klance" zine in which I was one of the guest authors! I wrote for the season Summer and we have just been given the okay to post our pieces! This was my piece for the main zine. The second piece in this series is the follow up piece that I wrote as additional merch for the zine and it's the boys one year later. :) I'll probably be posting that piece tomorrow!!
> 
> For this zine I was paired up with the amazing artist LeggyDeco and you can find their accompanying art to this fic on their instagram!

The sun glistens across the ocean, the pinks and oranges dancing with the waves, kissing the horizon and painting the world in soft, warm hues. 

Lance sits atop his lifeguard stand, looking out over the ocean. Everyone has just begun to return home, packing up their towels and blankets, their umbrellas and drinks. Technically the beach is still open for a few more minutes— until the sun is all the way below the horizon, the warm colors fading out into soft tendrils before disappearing into the deep blues of the night sky. Lance could go home, too, but he doesn’t. He pulls the sleeves of his hoodie down past his elbows, covering the parts of his arm that were previously exposed as the night air begins to get a little bit of a bite. 

It's silly, really, and he knows that, but his heart tells him that he can’t go home. Not yet. Not until he sees if Keith comes.

They’ve never really spoken— a few greetings in passing and a  _ welcome to our seaside paradise _ when Keith and his parents had moved into town at the start of summer— but that hasn’t done anything to stop Lance’s interest. At the start of the summer he tried to convince himself that it was just because Keith was new. Their town was small— everybody knew everybody and  _ everything _ — and having someone new join it was exciting and unexpected. But deep down in his heart, Lance knew that wasn’t the reason.

In fact, his interest in Keith hadn’t started right off the bat. He’d seemed like a nice guy, albeit a little quiet and reserved. But then, late one night, Lance was lingering at the beach. It was one of those nights where the breeze didn’t really cool and the warm salt air of the ocean kissed his cheeks. Lance liked staying after the sunset sometimes, just to see the ocean at night. And, as he learned that night, Keith liked the ocean at night, too.

Keith hadn’t seen Lance, he’d just come to the ocean, rolling up his pant legs— after an entire summer, Lance could safely say that Keith was one of  _ those _ people who wore pants year round— and waded out into the water. It was silent, save for the sound of the crashing waves and the faint talk of the town coming from the weekly bonfire they held. Lance had thought about saying something to Keith, but then Keith had thrown his arms out to the side and his head back, eyes closed, bathed in the early moonlight, and all the words Lance could have possibly ever thought up dried up in his chest. 

It felt like Lance was witnessing something intimate, something personal. For a moment, the rest of the town didn’t exist. It was just the two of them under the twinkling of the first stars that night, sharing in a moment that was entirely unspoken. Lance had laid awake for hours that night, thinking about Keith and the way the tips of his long hair had almost looked silver in the moonlight, thinking about the way his skin glowed. 

He’d never mentioned it to Keith. In fact, he still hadn’t gotten up the guts to talk to Keith—  _ really _ talk to him, to do anything more than spare him a polite nod when they passed in the small downtown streets. But he still stayed every time he had a closing shift as the beach lifeguard, hoping to see Keith bathed in that moonlight again. He’d been lucky enough to see him a few more times, always the same. And just like the first time, Lance always left with his heart racing in his chest and the overwhelming feeling of peacefulness. 

It was that first night that Lance learned that he liked more than just the ocean at night. He liked  _ Keith _ at night. And as he tallied up more and more experiences with Keith at night, Lance started to suspect that he liked  _ Keith _ . Full stop. 

Lance thought about him constantly, wondered what it was that was on his mind, what he did during the day. There were so many things Lance wanted to  _ know _ . More than that, the desire to just have a conversation with Keith was getting stronger and stronger with each passing day. He couldn’t hope to be let into the inner workings of Keith’s mind if he couldn’t even handle small talk with the guy and he knew that. So tonight—  _ tonight _ he was going to finally talk to Keith. He was going to say  _ something _ to him, to really share in the moment with him because summer was winding to a close and Lance wouldn’t be able to live with himself through the remaining seasons if he didn’t at least take a chance.

As far as he knew, Keith’s family was only here for the summer. That’s what the town said, anyways, and the town really did know everything. Lance had spent the last week, at least, cursing himself for wasting what probably could have been a perfect summer romance. Now, at best, they could get a few weeks out of each other. And Lance wanted that, absolutely, but if he had sucked it up and found his words earlier, they could’ve had closer to three months together. But some time was better than no time, Lance figured, and now he was ready to take as much of Keith’s time as he could possibly get. 

The sun was almost completely below the horizon, only a tiny sliver still remaining, blending and melding with the sea, and Lance was starting to lose hope. Maybe this would be another one of those nights where Keith didn’t come. It wasn’t his _ last  _ chance, but it had taken him an entire week to build up his nerve for this. If he had to do that all over again, he’d be wasting another precious week, cutting down even further on the time they could have together.

The breeze blows through again, lifting the longer pieces of his hair off of his forehead and he closes his eyes against the feeling of it. He takes in a deep breath, really breathes in the salty ocean air, feels the dampness of it against his skin. This has always been his happy place— right alongside the ocean, practically one with nature. He’s always thrived in places like this, moments like this.

A few long seconds pass where Lance just allows himself to relax, to trust in the world and what it has in store for him. And then, when he opens his eyes, he sees Keith, just at the edge of the shore, bent over to roll up his pant legs like he does every time. 

For a moment, Lance just watches. But he knows he has to do something soon. He has to get over there, to engage Keith in conversation, or he’d lose his nerve when he saw the pure beauty that was Keith bathed in the first rays of moonlight. Just the thought of it makes Lance’s mouth go dry and he struggles to swallow around the emotions forming a lump in his throat.

Hastily, Lance scrambled down from his chair, the sand soft and forgiving under his feet. He turned quickly, fixing his hoodie as one of the shoulders slid off, and rushed across the beach. Faintly, he knew he probably shouldn’t literally come charging at Keith, but he wanted to get to him before he was in the water and out of Lance’s reach.

“Keith!” he called, waving an arm overhead, willing his breath not to be stolen when Keith glanced up at him and his eyes caught the reflection of the dwindling sunset. “Hey!”

“Oh,” Keith says after a moment, finishing the last cuff on his pants. He doesn’t seem thrilled to see Lance, but he doesn’t seem put out by his presence, either, and Lance can work with that. “Lance, hey.”

Lance finally makes it all the way to Keith, pausing a few feet away for good measure. “What’s up?”

Keith glances at him again as he straightens up before looking out at the ocean. “I just like coming here at night,” he answers after a moment, as if he can sense Lance’s unspoken question. “Less people.” A silence lingers because Lance doesn’t really know how to say that he  _ knows _ Keith likes coming here at night without sounding incredibly weird. Finally, it reaches a breaking point and Keith finally asks. “What’re you doing here?”

“Oh,” Lance says dumbly, his brain taking a moment to catch back up. It’s a perfectly logical question and yet somehow Lance wasn’t expecting it at all. “I’m a lifeguard here. My shift just ended.”

“Right, I think I heard that you were a lifeguard.” Keith pauses a moment, looking out over the ocean again and there’s something so serene in his expression, it fills Lance’s heart to the brim. “Well, I was gonna wade out a little bit. Is that allowed, or am I at a high drowning risk?”

Lance grins at Keith’s joke, surprised to hear him be so casual. In their few encounters so far, he’s seemed incredibly quiet. Lance didn’t expect him to make jokes, but he’s thrilled about it. “Definitely the latter. I can’t let you go out there unaccompanied. It’d be incredibly dangerous.”

Keith shakes his head, the ghost of a smile forming on his lips, before turning back to the ocean and taking a few steps into the water. “Well then come on, hero.”

Lance, already in his bathing suit from his shift, steps into the water behind Keith. He’d left his sandals at his station and made a mental note to go back for them. The water is warm, warmer than the night air, and it feels good against Lance’s skin. He’s always loved nature, but he’s always been drawn to water the most. He likes to think in some other lifetime he was a mermaid and the remnants of that still call to him.

“So,” Lance finally says as he steps up next to Keith, the water almost to their knees. “Do you do this often?”

It’s not a totally unfair question. Lance doesn’t have a closing shift every night of the week so in all honesty, he  _ doesn’t _ know how often Keith does this. He has more of an idea than Keith knows about, of course, but it’s still not a totally unreasonable question to ask.

Keith shifts, turning so he’s facing Lance directly in the water. Lance does the same and he feels his heart jump right into his throat while his stomach drops straight to his feet. Keith is much closer than Lance had realized, his eyes sparkling brighter than the stars that were starting to peek out. 

“A few nights a week.” Keith answers after a long moment. It’s almost like he’s trying to decide how much to divulge to Lance, how much he’s willing to admit. “I just feel at peace here. I’m sure that sounds dumb, but—”

“No, no!” Lance hastily interrupts, catching himself before he can reach out to grip Keith by the shoulders to make his point.  _ Keep it cool, McClain, _ he reminds himself. “I totally get that! That’s why I became a lifeguard. This is my absolute favorite place to be!”

A silence falls around them again, but it’s not really uncomfortable. It’s nice, almost, to know that he’s sharing his favorite place with someone else who appreciates it as much as he does. It’s nice, sharing his favorite place with Keith. Lance swallows at the thought, realizing how dangerously close his crush is to boiling over, which is honestly ridiculous, seeing as this is his first full conversation with the guy.

“You know.” Lance takes a shaky breath. He knows he shouldn’t be this nervous, knows that Keith is just some guy in their town that he barely knows, but something about it feels weighted, somehow. It feels like Keith was brought here this summer just  _ for _ Lance. Like the universe was answering some prayer Lance didn’t remember sending out, but he was grateful for it all the same. “It’s pretty lame that we haven’t spent any time together this summer. I hardly know you.” 

Keith is watching Lance carefully, reading his expression and listening closely. It almost makes Lance’s jitters worse. “If that’s how you feel, hero, you should’ve said something any of those other times you found me on the beach at night.”

The sun is fully below the horizon, the sky melting from deep blues into inky blacks. The water around them takes on matching colors, and Lance hopes beyond hope that this darkness is enough to cover the flush he can feel beating his cheeks. “You knew I was here?”

“You sit on a chair like teen feet above the ground.” Keith replied levelly. “You’re pretty hard to miss.”

Well, that’s that, Lance assumes. Keith probably thinks of him as some weirdo now. “Oh, sorry. I never wanted to interrupt.”

“But today you did?” Keith’s lips are turned up in a small smile and he looks more bemused than upset, but there’s nothing that can be said to decrease Lance’s embarrassment. 

“You’re right.” Lance braces himself to just cut his losses and let go. “I shouldn’t have, I’m—“

“I’m glad you did,” Keith interrupts and the step Lance had just been about to take towards the shore falters. “I’ve been waiting for you to. I was starting to think I’d have to drag you down from that chair myself.” 

A lot of thoughts are immediately warring for Lance’s attention. He isn’t sure how to feel, but he recognizes that he’s been presented an opportunity and he knows that he needs to take it. He can sort out his mixed feelings later tonight, can replay everything Keith said in his mind and try to make sense of it in the middle of the night when he’s not sleeping because he’s confident his heart is going to keep racing like it is right now for hours to come. He doesn’t imagine any sleep in his future tonight and honestly, he’s fine with that. 

“Do you want to have a picnic with me tomorrow?” Lance blurts before he can lose the nerve. For whatever reason, Keith hasn’t seemed put off by the situation and Lance doesn’t want to miss his chance. 

“A picnic?” Keith echoes. 

“Yeah, you know. Food in a basket, sitting on a blanket…” Lance jokes, trying to get his nerves even a little under control. “Surely you’ve at least  _ heard _ of a picnic!”

“I know what a picnic is.” Keith bristles a little, but he doesn’t turn away from Lance. “That’s just not something I’ve ever been invited on.” 

“Is that a yes, then?” Lance presses, taking a half step closer to Keith. The sand is even more forgiving under the water and it sinks under Lance’s feet, bringing him closer to Keith than he’d intended to go. Suddenly he’s just a few inches from Keith, staring up at him. 

The way the moon reflects in Keith’s eyes is beautiful from a distance, but absolutely breathtaking from up close and Lance knows he must be staring but he just honestly doesn’t care. 

“Yes.” Keith murmurs, his voice quiet now that Lance is so close to him. The moment feels so intimate. “I’ll go on a picnic with you tomorrow.”

For a long moment, all Lance can hear is the thumping of his heart and the soft  _ whoosh  _ of the waves as they lap at their legs as he stands there, almost paralyzed, staring at Keith and his pretty moonlit eyes. 

“Great.” he finally manages to breathe. “Let’s meet here at around noon tomorrow? I’ll bring the picnic.”

“Here?” Keith teases, leaning just the tiniest bit closer, his breath ghosting against Lance’s cheeks. “You want to meet  _ right here _ , in the middle of the ocean, for our picnic?”

Lance balks, frowning back at Keith, even if he knows his blush has only deepened with Keith’s increased proximity. “You know what I mean, don’t be a jerk. We’re not even having a picnic on this beach anyways.”

That seems to startle Keith a little. “We’re not? Where are we having it?”

But Lance is already turning and wading out of the water, determined to leave while he’s on top and leave at least a little mystery. “I guess you’ll see when you get here tomorrow!” Lance calls over his shoulder as he goes, pausing just on the sand to add, “And don’t forget that you’re in danger now that your hero is leaving!”

He rushes to his lifeguard chair to gather his things before Keith can say anything more. 

* * *

This time, when Lance finds Keith on the beach, the sun is high in the sky and they’re surrounded by people. Keith is standing right by Lance’s lifeguard chair, propping his shoulder against it and looking out at the ocean. And yet, the moment Lance starts to approach, Keith’s eyes snap to him, as if he could feel Lance coming. Lance had always thought Keith looked beautiful in the moonlight but now, seeing him with the sun slanting across his skin and making his eyes sparkle, Lance thought he looked beautiful again. It was a different kind of beauty, though.

Whenever Lance saw Keith at night, he seemed ethereal, almost, like he was too good for this world. He seemed to glow from the inside out. It was both stunning and breathtaking simultaneously. Now, however, he looked very real, very solid. He looked  _ alive _ , his skin tanner than it had been at the start of summer— though Lance wouldn’t go so far as to call him  _ tan _ — and he was so full of color. Instead of being bathed in pale moonlight, he was bright and warm and still so stunning that Lance nearly trips over his own feet on his way to Keith.

“Is it possible?” Lance gasps to cover his stumble, pressing his free hand sarcastically against his chest, the other clutching the picnic basket tightly. “You actually have legs?” Keith glances down at his legs, clad for the first time in capris instead of pants. “I never knew!”

Keith rolls his eyes at Lance; “Nothing is stopping me from leaving right now and not going on this picnic with you.”

“Okay, okay.” Lance holds a hand up in surrender. “I take it back. But you do look nice.”

That gets a flush out of Keith who ducks his head and changes the topic. “So, where are we going?”

“I have a secret spot.” Lance grins at Keith, hoping it looks more confident than he feels.

Honestly, he’s incredibly nervous. He knows that he has no real right to be, this isn’t a  _ date _ or anything, but it still carries the weight of one. He wants to impress Keith, to make him smile. He wants to give Keith such a good time that he agrees to do this again tomorrow, and then the day after. Truth be told, Lance’s overall goal is to spend so much time with Keith that they fall horribly in love in the few weeks they have left in the summer. In reality, that would likely end in horrible heartbreak. In Lance’s fantasy, Keith doesn’t leave at the end of the summer and they live happily ever after.

“Alright, hero, you better be good at giving directions.” Keith finally presses off of the lifeguard stand and steps up to Lance. He gestures to his bicycle that is locked up just off of the beach. “Because I’m driving.”

A thrilling shiver runs down Lance’s spine as he soaks in the implications of that statement. Keith takes off towards the bike with ease while Lance takes a moment to get his legs moving. He runs across the sand to catch up to Keith who is now slinging his leg over the bike. Once he’s mounted the bike, he reaches out to take the picnic basket from Lance’s hand and plops it in the basket on the front of the bike before looking back at Lance expectantly. 

The back of the bike is a flat platform, easy for Lance to sit on. He glances at it, looks back at Keith, and then takes a deep breath. Before he can lose his nerve— because wow, he didn’t honestly think he’d even get Keith to hang out with him so every single extra thing that’s happening is just icing on the cake— he braces his hands along the platform and hops up, leaving both of his legs dangling off of one side. It takes the two of them a moment to strike a balance but, once they do, Keith pushes off and they’re riding together.

The wind blows lazily by, catching at the edges of Lance’s large sun hat, so he reaches up to secure it with an airy laugh. He has to lean close to Keith, bracing a hand gently on one of Keith’s shoulders to direct him as he pedals. Keith turns his head to listen to Lance, paying attention as Lance points out different things as they go, retelling different stories he’s heard or memories he has at each place. Keith doesn’t talk much other than to clarify Lance’s directions, but every time he turns his head, Lance catches a glimpse of a smile on his lips and that’s more than enough.

Finally they make it to the secluded beach that Lance had discovered a few years prior. He’d always said that he would take someone here for a first date, but he’d never followed through on that. There was something magical about the secret beach— the way it was untouched by the rest of the town. It was like a small slice of paradise with its own palm trees and white sand tapering off into the gentle waves. It was a perfect replica of the main beaches in the city, but completely untouched by everybody else. 

It had the same sort of intimate air about it that Lance felt when he watched Keith all those nights. As soon as Keith had agreed to come with him today, Lance had known that he couldn’t possibly take Keith anywhere else.

They unloaded the picnic basket and spread out the blanket, taking seats near each other as Lance opened it and started doling out all the food that he’d packed. Keith watched, wide-eyed, accepting a drink when Lance handed it to him.

“You really went all out here.” Keith commented, popping the lid off of his drink and taking a sip.

“Well, yeah.” Lance said, his nerves back. He felt sort of jittery. “I, uh— I was really looking forward to this. And I don’t know enough about you to know your favorite food so I packed… everything.”

There’s a ghost of a smile on Keith’s lips as he takes another sip from his drink before saying. “That’s… sweet.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes, eating the different things Lance had packed and staring out at the ocean, watching the sun shimmer across the surface. Lance has a lot of things he wants to know about Keith and a lot of conversations he’d love to start, but he doesn’t know where to start. He’s spent the first few weeks of summer sharing intimate moments with Keith, even though that didn’t include them talking… or even acknowledging each other. Still, those moments mattered to Lance, a lot, and he didn’t know how to move back to all the casual steps they’d missed. 

“So.” He begins and Keith looks over at him, his eyes catching in the sun again and nearly stealing the words right out of Lance’s mouth along with the air from his lungs. ”You really knew I was there all those nights? I’m sorry, that must seem kind of creepy.”

Keith looks at him for a long moment, “I wouldn’t say creepy.” When Lance does nothing but stare at him in surprised disbelief, he presses on. “I just assumed there was a reason you weren’t coming down to talk to me. I hadn’t pegged you as shy when I first met you but I figured I must’ve been wrong.”

“Wait, you  _ wanted _ me to talk to you?” Lance balked, setting his sandwich back down on the napkin before him.

That gets Keith to turn away, his cheeks flushing a little pink. If Lance hadn’t seen it happen, he could’ve easily believed it was just the sun. “Well, yeah. Why do you think I always came right at the end of  _ your _ shift?”

“I—” Lance honestly didn’t have any idea how to respond to that. Of course, he didn’t know that Keith came only at the ends of his shift. He didn’t have any idea what happened on the days he wasn’t at the beach. But Keith was looking at him again, earnestly this time, so Lance let that go unsaid. 

Keith pressed on in light of Lance’s lackluster response. Although, with the way it made his heart skip a beat, it might’ve been better for him if Keith had just left it at that. “I was hoping we could spend some time together. You know, just the two of us? You just seemed really cool the first day we met and I didn’t think crowded city bonfires were the best way to get to know you.”

“No!” Lance points an accusing finger at Keith. “I brought you here so I could tell you that I’ve secretly been crushing on you all summer and wanted to get to know you better! How dare you beat me to my own confession?”

That startled a laugh out of Keith who reclined back on the picnic blanket, throwing his head back and letting the sun bathe his face. He shook his head fondly before glancing back at Lance. “Sucks to be you, I guess.”

“I take back the whole secret crush thing.” Lance grumbles, picking his sandwich up again. “You’re actually the worst, I don’t like you at all. Can’t wait for you to leave at the end of the summer.”

“Oh, right.” Keith sits back up and looks at Lance earnestly. “I never got a chance to tell you because you spent half the summer creeping on me instead of talking to me.” Lance makes an indignant noise but Keith ignores it. “We’re not moving at the end of the summer. We’re here for good. Or, well, until— ”

The end of Keith’s sentence is cut off by Lance reaching across the space between them and yanking him forward into a kiss. Keith goes willingly, kissing Lance back immediately and pulling him even closer, careful to avoid the food in between them.

Suddenly, Lance doesn’t care about the weeks he wasted, doesn’t care about anything other than Keith and the fact that now they really can have that happy ever after that Lance was daydreaming about. And something tells him, as Keith pulls away just enough to smash Lance’s sandwich into his face, that they’re going to get exactly that. The way Keith pulls him close again, kissing the mayo off of the corner of Lance’s lip makes Lance sure they were always meant to be more than a summer love.


End file.
